1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for loading workpieces, and more particularly to an improved apparatus for loading non-circular workpieces, such as, for example, pistons of an internal combustion engine, with a uniform angular aspect or orientation, onto a spindle chuck of a machine tool.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, there has been known several loading apparatus for automatically loading workpieces, of the type noted hereinabove, onto a spindle chuck of a grinding machine. To cite one example, in the loading apparatus as disclosed within U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,952 to G. Terahara, dated Feb. 20, 1973, a workpiece charging mechanism and a discharging chute are disposed in parallel within the vicinity of a spindle chuck in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of a worktable. The charging mechanism is provided at the front end thereof with a rotating mechanism which operates to index a workpiece supplied by the charging mechanism onto an extension of the spindle chuck axis, and in axial alignment with the axis of the spindle chuck, there is further provided a shifting mechanism by which the indexed workpiece is held and then transferred to the spindle chuck.
However, within such a loading apparatus, a drawback is noted in that the space forwardly of the spindle chuck is remarkably restrained for the charging mechanism, having the rotating mechanism, is mounted together with the discharging chute upon the worktable within the vicinity of the spindle chuck. This therefore results in the decrease of the working property or area as well as confining or restricting an operator access to the machine tool. Moreover, as the charging mechanism considerably overhangs from the worktable, a large floor space is necessary to install the machine tool.